“That man had his foot in every camp”
Sir Alex Ferguson’s power and influence during his 26 years as Manchester United manager was legendary, and never again will a football manager exert so much control over the club he was employed by.
Ferguson built at least three great teams, oversaw the development of brilliant players such as Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Cristiano Ronaldo, and ruthlessly got rid of those he felt were past their best – or had dared to cross him, such as Roy Keane, David Beckham, Paul Ince and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Fergie didn't miss many games but… https://t.co/egzf3bhEqd
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) December 4, 2017
Many felt Ferguson’s power extended to influencing referees, to “Fergie time” being applied until United got the goal, or two, they needed to win a game. The Scot boycotted the BBC for seven years, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that he consulted with him for “management advice”. Ferguson also found a way to get under the skin of rival managers with his “mind games.”
It appears that the influence of the United manager extended to the England national team. According to former Arsenal and England defender Martin Keown, Ferguson’s influence was so great in English football during his tenure, he managed to get the national team to change their travel plans for away games.
“To give you an idea as to Alex Ferguson’s influence, with England, we would land back from away trips in Luton. Ferguson said, ‘no’, he wanted us to land in Manchester. So, we landed in Manchester, because he felt there were more players in the north-west. That man had his foot in every camp.”
You can watch Keown on BT Sport’s show Premier League Tonight here:
Former United midfielder Nicky Butt has claimed that Ferguson often pulled him out of England squads for friendlies. “He never once said to me to fake an injury,” Butt said.
“He’d just say ‘You’ve got an England friendly coming up and you’re not going’. And that was that. At one stage there was nine of us and he would pull one or two of us out and let the other six go.”
While former United captain Steve Bruce revealed that Ferguson put an end to his chances of playing at a World Cup for the Republic of Ireland, the country of his mother’s birth. It seems it wasn’t just the English national team that the former United manager had an influence over.
“Big Jack Charlton rang me before USA 94,” Bruce said.
“Typical Jack, he rang me and said ‘I’ve just been on a train and the driver says your mother is from Ireland, why didn’t you tell me before? We’d love to welcome you’. At the time if you were Irish you were ‘foreign’ and that assimilated rule, you could have been a ‘foreigner’ playing for Man U. Sir Alex put the boot into that one and said ‘you’re not going to be foreign’. You were only allowed four or five [foreign players]. We played Barcelona one year and had to leave Cantona and Schmeichel upstairs.”
